A Different Kind of Dead
by Wishful Thinker
Summary: After an epidemic zombifies the world, survivor Bella Swan must make her way from hard-hit Florida to the supposedly untouched Northwest. Along the way she finds that zombies aren't the only monsters out there.
1. Pandemic Blues

Title: A Different Kind of Dead

Summary: After an epidemic zombifies the world, survivor Bella Swan must make her way from hard-hit Florida to the supposedly untouched Northwest. Along the way she finds that zombies aren't the only monsters out there.

Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff is owned by Stephanie Meyers.

Chapter One: Pandemic Blues

"_This is the way the world ends; not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door." – Anna Hocking Hollowland_

Looking back, there had been signs. For months there had been a steadily rising number of missing ships in the Atlantic. The media blamed everything, weather patterns, navigational errors, even pirates. But nothing really struck as true, the ships just vanished, no warning, no distress calls, just gone.

Six months before the outbreak one cargo ship near the west coast of Africa sent out a message before its instruments went dark:

Crew sick. Injuries grave.

The ship ran aground on a small island in the Cape Verde chain a two weeks later. It was the last time anyone on the island contacted the outside.

It took a while for the news to really pick up on the story. There were larger, closer disappearances to report on, and the public was getting tired of the story anyway. But then something happened on the coast of Senegal. Something which spread rapidly to Mauritania and Mali. Cities went dark, and reporters around the world rushed in.

What came out was confused bits of information, something about a sickness, a new epidemic. People started to flee the continent. But it was no use. Sixteen days after the rest of the world cut off emigration from Africa, fearing outbreak, another ship ran aground, this time in Haiti. Two days later all communication from the East coast of South America tapered off. It happened so quickly no one even knew where it had started.

But this time the world was watching. Before the communication lines ended, videos got out. Shaky, grainy images from camera phones and the clearer images from local news stations. Images that shocked the world.

The word zombie was suddenly splashed across front pages everywhere. So was the word apocalypse.

_Author's Note: Alright, new story! I'm trying something new here with the super short chapters. Hopefully this will help with getting things out as soon as they are written since I won't be waiting until I can get to some elusive word count. A couple things about this story are planned out already, but one big question right now: should the Cullens be human or vampires? Let me know in a review if you have a preference. _


	2. Life in the Void

Title: A Different Kind of Dead

Summary: After an epidemic zombifies the world, survivor Bella Swan must make her way from hard-hit Florida to the supposedly untouched Northwest. Along the way she finds that zombies aren't the only monsters out there.

Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff is owned by Stephanie Meyers.

Chapter Two: Life in the Void

"_You know, surprisingly, they don't sell a lot of brains in the local 24-hour grocery store around the corner from my house." ― Rusty Fischer, Zombies Don't Cry_

Bella Swan sighed quietly as she peeked out of her balcony window to observe the streets below. It had been six days since she had last seen movement caused by anything but wind, and her food store was beginning to worry her.

The warm, salty sea breeze ruffled her tangled hair and she pushed it back from her face impatiently. It was time, she decided, to go outside.

Despite the heat she dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. She tied a thick hoodie around her waist and slipped on her chucks, idly wondering if she might be able to get some boots today. As much as she loved the ease of tennis shoes, there was no telling what she might come across when she went into the town today, but a few things were always the case: glass, for one, lots of broken glass.

She had been here, on the outskirts of Jacksonville with Renee and Phil when the outbreak had hit, and it had been horrific. They had been lucky, she supposed, to have been in a less populated area that had saved them from the violence that preceded the final waves of the disease. But even now she felt its echo when she was forced to crawl through blown out windows to search for food, or push through debris to make her way down what should have been open streets.

And that was to say nothing of the corpses. The humidity, sun, and, frankly, the wildlife had not been kind to what remained of the residents of Jacksonville. Bella felt a wave of nausea at just the thought of it.

Checking over her hotel room to be sure she wasn't missing anything vital, Bella carefully shut the door and made her way down the stairway to the large, rusted red truck parked out front. She'd found it nearly a month ago, keys on the bench seat and tank almost empty. It had been parked near an old gas station, and from the hose and pump half attached to one the gas pumps, Bella had surmised that whoever had owned it must have stopped to fill up the truck. From the blood tracks nearby she had been pretty sure they weren't going to miss it.

Using the pumping equipment had taken a few tries, but a couple half-remembered Science class lessons in suction and pressure differences had helped and that day she had gained a veritable tank as a means of transportation.

It rumbled loudly as she made her way into the edge of the city, passing up a few ransacked stores she had previously visited. There was a supercenter further into the city that she had yet to venture to, and this was her destination today. With any luck she could get a few weeks' worth of food out of it, and maybe find some passable boots.

Cutting the engine after parking close to the supercenter doors, Bella stayed seated for a moment. She grabbed the binoculars from the bench next to her and surveyed the parking lot carefully.

No movement.

It was a downside of the truck, really, the noise it made. Noise attracted the zombies. The first few times she'd driven it she'd been as likely to be swarmed as not and she had come very close to abandoning the vehicle back then.

She hadn't though, because she'd had the clarity of mind to realize that while the noise drew the zombies to her, they couldn't breach it. Their slow, disintegrating limbs were no match for the Tank, as she'd come to call it in her head. And they couldn't keep up with it either.

Five minutes passed, then ten, with no signs of life—questionable though it might be—in the parking lot. There was also no movement from the supercenter's doorway, which made her hopeful. Toward the beginning of the pandemic grocery stores had been the most dangerous places. Even now, nearly five months from when everything had collapsed and a good two months since the zombies had mostly disappeared, food runs were the most dangerous thing Bella did. They were also about the only thing she did.

With one last look through the binoculars, Bella took a deep breath, slipped her backpack on and grabbed the handle for her duffel and opened the truck door.

Her feet barely made a noise as she shuffled into the gaping hole of what had once been a doorway.

_Author's Note: Trying to get at least one more chapter out tonight. In the meantime please let me know whether you want the Cullen's to be vampires or humans. _


	3. Peaches

Title: A Different Kind of Dead

Summary: After an epidemic zombifies the world, survivor Bella Swan must make her way from hard-hit Florida to the supposedly untouched Northwest. Along the way she finds that zombies aren't the only monsters out there.

Disclaimer: Everything Twilight is owned by Stephanie Meyer.

Chapter 3 Peaches

"Zombies can't believe the energy we waste on nonfood pursuits." ― Patton Oswalt, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt

Though the store had seemed relatively preserved from the outside, Bella found the inside to be equivalent to a war zone. Once she was passed the blown open doors she was able to see that most of the huge, long shelves had been overturned. The smell of rotting food was thick in the air, and bugs and rats were in plain sight.

To her right was what seemed to have been the grocery section. The worst of the smell seemed to originate here, and Bella fumbled in her jean pocket and pulled out her trusty nose plug as she stepped carefully through an overturned display of…something. Something that had been in glass jars and now smelled like rotten fish.

Slipping the swimmer's plug over the bridge of her nose she caught sight of a mostly intact light orange label among the mess. Peaches. Huh. They certainly didn't resemble peaches any more.

It was a shame, really, that most stores put their freshest things up front. She understood the concept, really, but in a practically post-apocalyptic world this habit of grocery arrangement meant that she had half a store to crawl through before finding anything that might still be good.

She silently thanked whoever had come up with sunlights though. With no electricity they were the only reason she could see her hand in front of her face in a store this large. It wasn't the same bright, clear light she had once been used to, but it was enough to avoid the bigger messes and read labels by.

It took a good ten minutes before Bella made it passed the produce, dairy, and frozen sections. The bread aisle was a moldy waste, and it was mostly empty anyway. There must have been a lot of looting right after the power went out, she figured.

The first of the canned food aisles had standing shelves, though they were completely empty at first glance. This was normal though.

Bella unhooked the small keychain flashlight she'd attached to a belt loop and kneeled down.

In the haste to grab any and all non-perishables, people tended to miss anything shoved back on the lowest shelves. A big store like this had deep shelves, and the potential that edible food stuffs were lingering was high.

Slowly, Bella crawled along the floor shining her small light into the lower shelves.

A can of refried black beans was the first find. She grinned when she found it, beans were a good find, lots of nutrients and they didn't have to be cooked. She rarely chanced a cooking fire.

The next find was a small box with six cans of tomato sauce. Not an exciting discovery, but a good one none-the-less. Bella shoved the box into her open duffle quickly and moved on.

By the end of the first aisle she added two cans of mixed vegetables and a glass jar of sliced beets that looked edible. She'd need to check for an expiration date on that one later, but for now it had looked good.

The next aisle was mostly boxed foods, and the rats had obviously claimed this as their new home. She checked anyway, just in case, and found a single box of pasta that had not been chewed into yet.

In this way Bella finished searching the grocery aisles. By the end of it, she had gathered only half what her duffle bag could hold, and had not added anything to the backpack.

Looking toward the 'Employee Only' doors she debated checking the back rooms. Surely there was food back there.

The double doors had windows in them, through which Bella could tell that the back areas did not have the sky lights she was currently enjoying.

Deciding to wait for now, Bella changed course and went to find the shoe department. It was time to see if she could find a pair of boots.


End file.
